RENT: Fruits Basket Style
by Smart in a Stupid Way
Summary: No Day But Today! The moviemusical through the characters of Fruits Basket. AU The story of 8 Bohemians trying to make it while fighting AIDS and learning about life and love. KyoxHisCamera, RinxHaruxKagura, YukixManabe, ShigurexAyame, HatorixKananot seen
1. RENT

Disclaimer: I do not own Fruits Basket or RENT.

A/N: I've always wanted to write a RENT-inspired fic, but I couldn't think of an anime to use until I was talking to a friend about Furuba and it hit me! Its the movie version, just so you know, because I couldn't bring myself to edit Jonathan Larson's beautiful work. I kept some of the lines that were my favorite, but most of it is in my own words. I hope you like it! If you do, please review, and I'll keep it going, song by song. So now I bring you... "RENT"!

"December 24, 1989, Nine PM Eastern Standard Time. From here on in, I shoot without a script; see if anything comes of it. Instead of my old shit," an orange haired man announced to his old camera. He was filming a homeless person attempting to wash the windows of some uptight businessman's Mercedes Benz for pocket change and getting cursed at profusely. The light turned green and the Mercedes sped off, leaving behind a disgruntled, freezing man. The man filming shook his head before getting on his bike.

The orange haired man, also known as Kyo, weaved in and out of the New York City traffic on his bike, speeding off towards his apartment; the area lovingly nicknamed 'Alphabet City'. He wrapped his black and white striped scarf around him once more; it was freezing and _someone_ had shut off their power. Pulling another eviction notice off of the door, he went upstairs to his apartment where his roommate was waiting with his guitar.

"Seriously, how much more corrupt can this place get? We got another eviction notice today," Kyo griped as he tugged his bike in the door and plopped his stuff down on the table.

"How come this never sounds right?" Hatsuharu, Kyo's roommate, picked at a chord and grumbled, more to himself than anyone else. Haru looked around their shabby apartment with Kyo's screenplays piled up on the table and posters of his own glory days plastered on the walls. He ruffled his black and white hair as he stood and made his way over to the fridge. "We have no food," he called back to Kyo as he peeked inside at the empty shelves, "and no power either."

"Add no money to that list," Kyo scoffed. "What are we—"

He was interrupted by the phone; the only thing still working. "Hello?" he answered.

"Hey man, its Shigure. Throw down the keys."

"Hey, you're back in town! Hang on." Kyo hung up and went out to the balcony, throwing a set of keys down to a black haired man standing next to a phone booth.

Shigure caught the keys and headed towards the stairs, stopped by a trio of men asking for a light. He paused to grab his lighter from his pocket, but saw the baseball bats coming first and started running, duffel bag in hand. He tried to outrun them into the alley, but had no luck and was beaten and stripped of his bag and coat.

"Flues stuck," Haru called as Kyo came back inside, poking their illegal wood-burning stove again for dramatic effect. "What should we do? It's freezing."

Kyo looked around before setting on a large metal trash can they'd swiped from outside. He pulled it into the middle of the room and started dumping piles of screenplays into it. Haru got the message and started pulling posters off the walls and adding it to the pile before lighting a couple of matches and throwing them in. The pair smirked at the mean blaze they had going with their collections of past.

Meanwhile, Shigure pulled himself into a sitting position, wiping the blood from his mouth. "Welcome back to New York, Shigure," he snickered. He attempted to stand but was hit with a wave of nausea and dizziness. "Better stay down…"

"Where is he?" Kyo asked, going back out to the balcony and looking around. He found no one, unfortunately, except for the other residents of Tent City looking at their eviction notices. Shivering, he stepped back inside to see Haru staring intently at the blaze.

"Funny how you can try to erase the past but it always keeps coming back to you. Funny how everyone betrays you from landlords, lovers… to even your own blood cells." Haru laughed at the last part, trying to make a joke; but can you make a joke of AIDS?

Kyo looked at the floor, scratching his head, unable to reply. He was one of the only ones left of their group of friends left untouched by the dark hand of the HIV virus. He was pulled from his thoughts by a commotion coming outside. Taking the flaming trash can with him, he dragged Haru outside. Apparently the fuss was all about the owner of the street block, Hatori Soma, who had driven up in his Mustang and the residents of Alphabet City were letting him know what they thought about the eviction notices and the loss of power. Someone lit an eviction notice on fire and let it float down to the street; a work of genius for the Bohemians of Tent City who quickly joined in. Hatsuharu and Kyo smirked, joining in with the chant of "We're not gonna' pay rent, last year's rent, this year's rent, next year's rent, we're not gonna' pay!"

Eventually, the commotion settled down and people went back to their business. Hatori got out of the car, shaking his head at the mess of the street. He turned back to his car only to see a homeless man leaning against the newly painted passenger door.

"Hey. Bum. Get your ass off the Mustang," Hatori called snottily. The homeless man acquiesced, but let the man in the suit meet his friend Mr. Bird.

"Hey, Ha'ri, that holier-than-thou attitude towards the homeless is exactly what Manabe is protesting," Kyo called down from the balcony.

"Manabe is protesting me rebuilding his performance stage, not my attitude. Come down, I'd like to talk to you."

Kyo and Haru rolled their eyes in unison but decided it couldn't hurt. Kyo went in first, Haru following after looking around at the surroundings and finding a girl on the balcony one floor down. She looked up at him with grey eyes and gave him a coy smile and a wave. He nodded, surprised, before following his roommate downstairs.

"Close-up: Hatori Soma, our ex-roommate and now landlord who married Kana Soma of the rich Outside Somas. His new father-in-law recently bought some of the buildings on our block and a vacant lot affectionately called Tent City. Ha'ri wants to evict all of the homeless from Tent City and build something called a Cyber Studio," Kyo informed his camera as he filmed Ha'ri taking down posters for their friend Manabe's protest.

Ha'ri ignored Kyo and turned towards Haru, "You're looking pretty good for someone who's coming off a year or so of withdrawal."

"What do you want Ha'ri?" Haru grumbled.

"My new investor—"

"You mean your father-in-law?" Kyo interjected, scoffing.

"Right. Well, he read about Manabe's performance and sent me down here to collect the rent from these buildings."

"What rent?"

"This past year's rent which I let slide."

"You said we were golden."

"When you bought the building."

"We were roommates.

"Remember you used to live here?" Kyo and Haru asked, alternating between each statement.

"Of course, how could I forget? You, me, Shigure, and Manabe. Always the drama queen. How is he?"

"Getting ready for his production, I guess," Kyo remarked.

"Still his manager?"

"Not exactly…" Kyo responded warily.

"He still stuck to you like glue? You were best friends."

"I was ditched," Kyo sighed, exasperated.

"What did he get a girlfriend and leave his best friend?"

"Well…"

"What's her name?"

"_His_ name is Yuki."

Ha'ri laughed; a rare feat for him. To think that Kyo's 'best friend' was whisked away by the man Kyo declared his rival and a "Corporate America Big-Shot" was just too hilarious to stand.

"Thanks for being so understanding," Kyo scoffed.

Haru snorted, "You can't expect much from the guy who shut off all the power on Christmas Eve."

"It got the desired effect."

"What happened to you? You used to have ideals and now you go live in some big house and loose all of that, loose your heart?" Haru questioned.

"I own that lot and I can do with it as I please."

"Happy Birthday Jesus," Haru scoffed turning away.

Ha'ri extended his hand out to Kyo, "The rent."

Kyo shook his head, "You're wasting your time; we're broke. This is stupid; you went back on everything you told us."

"There is one way you won't have to pay. When we build the CyberArt studio, our dreams can finally come true. I'll forget all about the rent and on paper make sure you can stay here for free_ if_ you can get Manabe to stop the protest. Fair enough, I should think."

"Why don't you just call the cops or something?" Haru spat.

"I did, and they're just waiting for the signal. My investors would rather we wouldn't have to go down that route. They'd like this to simmer down quietly."

"You can't just wipe out a community of homeless people and then go home and watch 'It's a Wonderful Life' on TV!" Haru hissed.

"If you want to make films and write songs, you'll need somewhere to do it. If you will just open your eyes you'll realize this is what we used to dream about! We can do what we please and get paid because of the condos we'll put on the top. Just stop this silly protest and everything will be fine. You'll see. Or you'll pack," Ha'ri finished, shrugging, then walking back to his car and driving off, leaving a disappointed and angry pair of Bohemians behind.

In the parking space Hatori left behind, a man with long silver hair set down a plastic pickle tub and started making a beat on it with his drumsticks. People threw change down for him every once in a while, for which we would say a thank you and wish them a merry Christmas. He paused to put the change in his coat pocket when he heard a soft moan of pain from the alley nearby. He followed the sound to where Shigure laid.

"Oh my gosh, are you okay Honey?" he asked rushing towards him. "Did they take anything?"

"Unfortunately, I'm fine," Shigure chuckled. "I didn't have any money, but they took my stuff."

"I'm Ayame," the silver haired man said as he helped Shigure to his feet.

"Ayame? Friends call me Shigure. Just Shigure."

"Let's get you fixed up," Ayame said as he helped Shigure to walk, "I sort of have to hurry though; I have a Life Support meeting to go to soon."

"Life Support?"

"It's for people with AIDS. People like me."

Shigure paused for a minute before smiling, "Me too."


	2. One Song Glory

A/N: One Song Glory... I love that song. I made up the story for Kagura myself cause I didn't want to mess with April's. I also changed the pairing now. Its Rin/Haru. It fits the story better even if I don't particuarly like it. I really like this chapter for some reason. Its one of the better things I've written in a while. Its short and abrupt because that was how their love ended. If you're super bored, go listen to "The Man Who Sold the World" by Nirvana and think about this chapter. The song was my little helper in writing this chapter.  
Leave me pretty Reveiws. Enjoy.

_"Time Flies; Time Dies"_

Kyo tugged his bike towards the door again before stopping and peering back at the depressed lump on the couch. "Hey, I was gonna try to find Shigure. Wanna come? Maybe we can get some food or something…"

"Zoom in on my empty wallet," the lump called back.

Kyo shook his head. "Take your AZT…" he called as he left.

Hatsuharu pulled himself into a sitting position on the couch and grabbed his old guitar. He strummed a little singing to himself softly as the tune took shape. It was going along well until a wrong note pulled the whole attempt down. Haru ruffled his hair, exasperated, and went up to the roof.

His breath smoked out in front of him as he watched the lights of the loved and hated city. His gaze peered out at all of the places he remembered while _she_ was alive.

His thoughts floated back to when he was the young hotshot front-man of a local punk band. He remembered the thrill of the stage; pulsing bass behind him, the beat of the drums, the melody of the guitar- all of it came back to him as if he'd never lost it.

Haru recalled the exact night he met her, how she looked up at him with a look of complete admiration radiating from her soft grey eyes. He remembered their first conversation after the concert; him drinking a beer and smiling softly, her smoking and laughing her good-natured laugh. Her hair was longer back then… back when they first met…

She had been a good girl for a long time until she'd been deserted by the one man she'd allowed herself to trust. Then she turned onto things she'd never even considered before. Cigarettes, binge drinking, self mutilation, and finally heroin were her poisons of choice. Despite all this, she was quirky and lovable, and she adored Haru more than anything else.

Haru remembered everything about her, from the way her brown hair curled at the ends to the curve of her hip to his name she had carved into her upper inner thigh. He remembered how she used to huff a sigh when she was bored with him practicing with the band, how she used to walk around in his apartment in her underwear like she owned the place, not caring if Kyo or anyone else saw her.

He loved her.

He loved everything about her. Leaving the band for her, shooting up with her, fucking her until neither of them could see, doing nothing but eating microwave ravioli and watching stupid TV for days at a time… none of it mattered. He was just happy to be with her. It didn't matter what he had to give up, who he had to get out of their way… he loved her so passionately he felt like he was dying if he wasn't with her.

After a while, though, her soft brown waves stopped growing out as much; started to thin out. Her complexion turned unhealthily pale, her veins more pronounced, and she had a cold she just couldn't shake. She kept telling him it was nothing, that she'd go see a doctor sooner or later. He kept pushing for sooner rather than later; he couldn't stand seeing her cough get worse, watching her tiny frame get racked by each passing hack.

One morning he awoke cold; she was missing. He threw himself out of bed and searched all over his apartment until he found a napkin saying she'd gone to see a clinic and that she'd be home later. She also asked if he would go see their dealer; that they were out. She signed it with a little doodle of a pig with hearts all around it.

With a smile, Haru went out and did as she asked. It took a lot longer than it should have because their dealer was getting harder and harder to find; something about trouble with the cops. He came home humming a little song he'd come up with on the way home about how much he loved her- especially when she was naked.

He opened the front door.

He threw down the keys on the kitchen table.

He put their smack where they normally kept their stash.

He called out to her, singing little lyrics to his new song.

He looked into the bathroom and saw a tiny brunette sitting in the tub.

He walked in.

He saw the blood.

He saw the razor.

He saw the paper.

_'We have AIDS.'_


End file.
